So, I'm wanting to jump into this thread. We are nowhere near FI or RE. We married young and started having babies young. We both have a college degree but felt strongly about me staying home once our dc were born so I've been a SAHM for 18+ years. For the record, I do not regret that decision but I know we are further behind because of that decision. Again, it's not something I'd change even with 20/20 hindsight.
We were not raised with very good financial training so got into debt quickly.
About 10 years ago, we did Dave Ramsey and got 100% out of debt except for the mortgage. For the most part, we were doing well...saving about $1000 month but not contributing to a 401k or anything to do with stocks...but saving. Then our dd18 got sick. It took about a year to get her diagnosed and now she has been in treatment for 2.5 years. Her diagnosis and treatment is NOT covered by the $900 a month premium we pay in health insurance, and so we have spent at least $1500 mo (but $2000 many months) for the last 2.5 years. We blew through our savings...we simply did not have that much extra in our budget to cover the costs. Our church helped us as well as some family members but an extra 2k per month for 18 mos is hard to manage. We are now back to barely any savings. We've never contributed regularly to any retirement account so we have nothing really there. I'm not sure what to do to move towards anything FI and/or RE.
My dh just sunk 6k into the stock market about 4 weeks ago after hearing family just going on and on about how much they were making. No more than a day or two after he put money in, it started to fall. This is seriously not the first time. Every stinking time we put money in the market, it begins falling. I told him before that as soon as he put money in, it would begin declining. And it did...
I'm not sure what we need to do. I'm curious how those of you who are on this path handle the tough stuff life throws at you. How do you get back on track?? I read one of the top reasons people go bankrupt is medical expenses. We did not go bankrupt but I can see how devastating medical costs are. You can deplete a nice, healthy bank account very quickly